New visa policies affect international students MBA applications

July 5, 2012 - PRLog -- New visa policies affect international students MBA applications
If you are an international student (especially from a non-English speaking country) and want to apply for a full-time MBA in the U.K, you might need to think twice since the new visa policies may change your plans for the future. Last year, visa policies have reduced by 25% the number of foreign students applications in the U.K in comparison with the year before.

With the suppression of the Post-Study-Work visa, international students face a stronger regulation process with higher standards such as English proficiency. In addition, they may also have to leave the country if they don’t find a job before they graduate - an extra obstacle on their career path on a very competitive job market.

So far, the impact on international students’ applications is not massive, but with no possibility to stay in the U.K after graduation if no job is found, the number of applications from outside of Europe should decrease a little bit more every year. These restrictions have forced U.K business schools to take action and ask for an alternative to the Post-Study-Work visa as they already received fewer applications last year. Negative press have been done on the topic in several countries such as India or China were students are advise to plan their studies in the U.K very carefully. As a result, English business and Schools fear for their reputation as they have for many years been enrolling the best international students.

However, it seems that the new visa policies are not the only reason for the decline as part-time MBAs applications fell off as well, and those concern a majority of E.U students. The explanation may be the increase of the cost of an MBA by 5% between 2012 and 2011. Actually, all MBAs types have seen their applications down last year.
Business Schools international applications declined by 10% in 2011. Fortunately, most MBA students find a job before they graduate, which means that only a few of them will be affected by the suppression of the Post-Study-Work visa. In the meantime, rules have changed positively for U.K companies willing to hire non E.U MBA students while they are still studying. When the Post-Study-Visa was still in place, employers had to prove that the non E.U student was the only one suitable for the job offered. From now on, U.K based company won’t have to worry anymore about the limit of overseas skilled workers allow in the U.K set every year.

However, the fear is that international students go for “foreigner-friendly” countries such as Canada where students can stay up to 18 months after they finish their studies. There’s also a fear of applying to 1-year MBAs programmes for international students as this does not allow them to find a job before they graduate.

Business school lobbies already plan to put pressure on the government and hopefully reintroduce the Post-Study-Work visa by 2013.

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